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With low school funding and stagnant achievement, Oregon ranks No. 41 in education, group says

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Student achievement is near average in Oregon, but reading and math achievement have been flat for the past decade and low-income students have fallen farther behind their more advantaged peers, a new study says.
(Betsy Hammond / The Oregonian)

Oregon also ranks low because so few preschoolers and kindergartners attend full-day programs and because the reading and math skills of low-income students have fallen so dramatically behind those of their better-off peers, it said.

Oregon’s education rankings

Overall: No. 41

What’s behind that low ranking?

> Stagnant reading and math scores on National Assessment of Educational Progress since 2003

> Widening gaps between how well poor students and non-poor students can read and do math

This year's report was different from previous ones. It does not rank states on their policies but looks strictly at statistical measures, primarily related to performance: student achievement, school funding and the odds for life success, including income, education and employment rates from childhood through retirement.

But Oregon's lack of progress, particularly for low-income students, stands out as among the worst in the country.

Forty-four other states have made bigger improvements on the national exam overall than Oregon has since 2003. And no state has seen its low-income students fall further behind their better-off peers than Oregon over the past decade, Education Week reports.

Performance of top-tier students has stagnated as well. Oregon ranks No. 48 in the country for its minuscule increase in the percentage of eighth-graders scoring at the advanced level on the national math test.

Money – or the lack of it – plays a role, Education Week says. The news outlet looked at state's gross domestic product for 2012, the best measure of each state's economy. Oregon devoted the equivalent of 2.6 percent of its GDP to public schools, the 46th lowest rate in the nation, the Quality Counts report says.

For that reason, Oregon Chief Education Officer Nancy Golden said she is optimistic Oregon will soon rank above No. 40 for its results.

"Through early literacy programs, full-day kindergarten and expanded preschool access, (Kitzhaber's proposed budget) prioritizes a significant strategic investment in our youngest Oregonians to ensure more of them are ready for kindergarten and and on track to read by third grade."

The Quality Counts report was based on about 35 different measures of education, and Oregon ranked above average on only two of them: The percentage of eighth-graders scoring proficient on the national math test (37 percent versus 34 percent nationally) and on some measures of equitable spending among districts within a state.